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irrigation research News

An article in Water Asset Management International examines economic, social and environmental factors which could be considered in an integrated way to evaluate the treated municipal wastewater reuse procedure for irrigation purposes in Greece. Water scarcity and deterioration in the quality of water resources in ...

Cotton growers can produce more cotton if they plant early, but not without irrigation. That’s the finding of an article published in the September-October 2010 Agronomy Journal, a publication of the American Society of Agronomy. Bill Pettigrew, a scientist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Stoneville, Mississippi, tested the performance of cotton under irrigated and ...

A team of researchers from the University of Valladolid (UVA) and the Salamanca Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology (IRNASA-CSIC) has shown that potatoes irrigated with arsenic-rich water contain this element at levels up to 35 times higher than crops on which this water was not used. The scientists have also confirmed the impact of water with high arsenic content on beet, carrot and ...

Crop and herbicide use history are more critical to herbicide efficacy and environmental safety than the timing and amount of irrigation water used, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. ARS plant physiologists Dale Shaner and Lori Wiles made this discovery from ongoing experiments on two irrigated fields at Colorado State University (CSU) at Fort Collins, Colo. Shaner and ...

Concern about microbial contamination of groundwater from foraging dairy cows has increased as spray irrigation practices in New Zealand have increased over the years. Bacteria capable of living in both animals and humans are commonly found in cow manure. Addressing the lack of research on the topic, a team of New Zealand researchers studied the transport of microbes from two spray irrigated ...

Agriculture plays a large role in the management of water in the EU. However, there is little consistent information on water use in irrigation. New EU supported research has estimated how much water is used for irrigation in European countries, providing a framework to analyse agricultural pressures on water quantity. Water scarcity is an increasing problem in the EU and the situation is ...

In 2009, the most recent year for which global data are available from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 311 million hectares in the world was equipped for irrigation but only 84 percent of that area was actually being irrigated, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service ...

Intensive irrigation of agricultural land in a Mediterranean water basin is altering the habitats of associated wetlands and changing the balance of the bird population living there, according to a recent study. The Mar Menor coastal lagoon is located in the Southeast of Spain. Inland there are an associated series of wetlands of ecological interest, protected by the Natura 2000 Network1. The ...

Agriculture, a large user of water for irrigation, is under pressure to reduce water use. Increased urban population growth has created more competition for limited water supplies. While growers have used soil moisture probes to aid in irrigation management in the past, earlier probes required maintenance or were expensive or inadequate. New electronic sensors have been developed that require ...

AZUD has an important number of patents and innovations, dedicating from the beginning important human and economic resources to research projects related to drip irrigation systems and filtration and water treatment systems. During EIMA 2014, which will be held in Bologna, Italy, from 12th to 16th November 2014, AZUD state-of-the-art technologies will be presented: ...

An Israeli water engineer was sitting under a tree one day when he noticed a leaking faucet slowly drip water to the tree's roots, a nearly 50-year-old irrigation tale says. The idea inspired the invention of modern drip irrigation, also known as micro-irrigation. The method runs water through plastic tubes that release the flow through small holes directly to crop roots or stems. The precise ...

Georgia is the largest pecan producing state in the U.S. Although this humid region receives an average of 127 cm or more rainfall annually, periods of moisture stress can occur during the pecan growing season, particularly during August and September when pecans are in the kernel-filling stage and water demand is at its peak. Pecan producers throughout the region depend on irrigation strategies ...

It has taken a lot of time and work (mostly by other people), but last week we finally got some good news in the pivot rice world. The USDA’s Risk Management Agency board of directors approved the application to provide crop insurance coverage for producers who want to grow rice with pivots. This means that by as early as next spring producers will be able to insure their pivot-irrigated ...

Solar-powered irrigation that delivers water directly to plant roots could help ensure food security in Africa, say researchers. Their study in the Sudano-Sahel region of West Africa indicated that this irrigation method could increase both household income and nutritional intake, particularly during the dry season. The food supply in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa is considered insecure in ...

Avocado growers now know that a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences mobile irrigation app works well to save money while maintaining crop yields. This data, reported in a new study, is critical for an industry that has a $100 million a year economic impact on Florida. It’s also important because agriculture uses about 70 percent of the world’s water, the ...

University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences faculty have developed a new app for avocado growers that provides an irrigation schedule so users save an estimated 20 to 50 percent on the water they apply to their orchards. “Weather changes daily, and the app takes into account these changes in the irrigation schedule it provides,” said Kati Migliaccio, an associate ...

Experts from Cranfield University’s Centre for Water Science and the UK Irrigation Association (UKIA) have won the prestigious WatSave 2010 Technology Award for their research and promotion of on-farm reservoirs in the UK. The winning project, undertaken by Cranfield’s Dr Keith Weatherhead and Dr Jerry Knox, and Dr Melvyn Kay, Executive Secretary of the UK Irrigation ...

As the container nursery industry faces severe restrictions on water use, researchers are looking to identify ways to minimize watering needs and eliminate excess watering. The authors of a new study say that understanding container-grown plants' capacity to "capture" sprinkler irrigation water can give growers important tools that help them adjust irrigation rates, reduce water use, and produce ...

Wireless sensor-based irrigation systems can offer significant benefits to greenhouse operators. Advances in sensor technology and increased understanding of plant physiology have made it possible for greenhouse growers to use water content sensors to accurately determine irrigation timing and application rates in soilless substrates. The wireless sensor systems provide more accurate measurements ...

Certain vegetables take up heavy metals from contaminated water used for irrigation, a new study finds. The researchers grew vegetables in greenhouses similar to field conditions in Greece and found that concentrations of nickel and chromium increased in potatoes and onions, but not in carrots, when irrigated with water containing contaminant levels similar to those found in industrial ...